The present invention pertains generally to electronic appliances, and more particularly to a simplified communications manager for appliance-to-appliance communications transactions.
The increasing use of portable computing appliances means that a user may store and work on data files on a fixed desktop computer at his workstation on site, and take a personal computing appliance such as a portable or palm top computer with him for use off-site. Data may be transferred between the desktop appliance and the personal computer appliance either by a close range infrared (I.R.) or other optical link, or a cable when the two are in close proximity, or via a modem link when the user has the personal computing appliance with him off site. The remote access provided by electronic appliances allows greater flexibility and convenience.
Appliances contain built in communications ability, such as infrared or very short range radio, which allows direct short distance communication. However, communications between appliances at a distance presents heightened challenges to users. Different communication standards, capabilities, and interfaces for plain old telephone systems (POTS), cellular telephones, wireless local area networks (LANs), and wide area networks (WANs) add complexity to individual appliances to manage the broad range of connections.
Accordingly, a need exists for a simplified appliance communications manager that allows direct appliance-to-appliance communication regardless of the complexity of establishing the logical communication connectionxe2x80x94either for short- or long-range communications.
The present invention is a novel communications manager for electronic appliances which allows an appliance to interact directly with other appliances without the need for a personal computer to control the transactions. The invention further allows an appliance to communicate many forms of information with other appliances over a wide range of distancexe2x80x94from a few feet to around the globe.
In accordance with the invention, the appliance communications manager manages communications transactions between appliances. In the illustrative embodiment, the communications manager comprises a processor, memory, and one or more I/O communications functions that establish the connections between the appliances through a variety of communications standards, thereby enabling appliance-to-appliance connections through these multiple channels. Preferably, a standard appliance language such as Hewlett Packard""s JetSend(trademark) is used as the communications protocol for the connection links between the appliances. The appliance communications manager may be a stand-alone device or may be integrated into one or more appliances. As a stand-alone device, it may also include a display and keyboard to allow names, addresses, phone numbers, IP and/or other connection information to be input into and stored by the appliance communication manager in order to facilitate fast appliance-to-appliance connections.